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I got home about an hour ago after completing my latest fun run. It was another 5 kilometres, and while I haven't gotten my final time yet, I definitely got under an hour, and I came very close to 50 minutes or maybe even under. But until I get the official time, here are the important stats:


Number of fun runs completed in the last 12 months: 3
Number of fun runs completed in the 36 years previous: 0
First song: More than a Feeling - Boston
Number of times swooped by a magpie: Twice.
Number of magpies trying to end my life: 1
Number of flies captured by my mouth: 1
Number of flies released by my mouth: 0
About the kilometre mark where I had had enough: 3 km
About when "Eye of the Tiger" kicked in: 30 seconds after I had enough.
When I got my second wind: 5 seconds after "Eye of the Tiger" kicked in.
Song that played when I was coming up to the finish line: "We are the Champions" - Queen. (And I didn't even plan this! My playlist just loved me and wanted me to come home hard.)

Two things to be happy about today. Well, maybe even three.

Happy No. 9, part 1: I got an email notification that my Avengers DVD has been mailed, and I should receive it either tomorrow or Thursday. Yay!! So I know what I shall be doing al weekend.

Happy No. 9, part 2: There was a sale on at a clothes shop when I was walking home from the bus stop, and I popped in, and got some great deals. And not only were they a good deal, they look nice on as well. Double yay!!

(Possible) Happy No. 9, part 3: managed to do just over 18,000 steps. My average is about 14,000 steps a day, and considering 12 weeks ago I was lucky to do between 5 - and 7 thousand steps a day, and now I'm doing 14,000 steps and 10km on the exercise bike every day I'm pretty impressed with myself. Still need to get my food intake sorted out, but my exercise has improved which is awesome. So I'm not doing the 10km to the bike tonight - by the time I go to bed I should have 20 thousand steps under my belt, and I am a bit sore from the steps I've done today already; most of those steps were going up and down stairs and the muscle do not approve.

To help raise money for Can Assist we held a dance contest (ala So You Think You Can Dance).

After the first group/welcome to the show dance the Spice Girls were on. I was Scary Spice - had an afro, more leopard print than even possible, even some body paint to take the 'Twilight-ness' off me. We were going great guns; our moves were smooth, and in time and everything. And then we got to the part where left the stage and had a quick dance in the audience.

I fell down the stairs head first.


I didn't even get down any stairs properly before I fell. I went down on one knee, and almost caught myself, and then I rolled head first down the rest of them.

The crowd went a bit silent, and without missing a beat, I jumped up (crowd went wild) and continued the routine. The transition from 'certain fall to my death' to 'the show must go on!' was so smooth people either missed the fall, or thought that I had practised the move and it was part of the act.

I was fine - ankle swelled up and knee hurt like a son of a bitch, but there was no bruising. It was caught on video, and I have given permission for them to send it into Funniest Home Videos. If it gets played, that's an extra 500 dollars for the charity. I'll put the video up once I get copy of it so you can judge my acrobatics for yourself.

Oh - in case you were wondering, we managed to raise 15 thousand dollars.

Shoulder update - I went to a sports science guy last week, and I have either strained/stretched or got a small tear in my supraspinantus muscle. It's been almost a month, and it's starting to improve, though I'm still a couple of weeks off being back to full duties at work.

I've also had a very disturbing cough for the last two weeks. Disturbing as in waking me at 3am every morning and throwing up due to how hard I've been coughing. The cough has been getting worse and worse, and finally I manned up and went to the doctor. I have bronchitis and I'm on antibiotics and ventolin.

It has not been a good month.

It's now been three weeks since I gave up smoking. The tic in my right eye that I had when I first gave up has gone. I haven't had a headache in two and a half weeks. I can't climb seven flights of stairs in one go, but when I get to the top my recovery time is half what it was. And I've paid $150.00 off my credit card from the money I would have spent on smokes in the last three weeks.

I still miss smoking, but I'm not craving them.

It's been a very interesting week this one. The main one I want to write down today at least, is that I have been smoke-free for one week today.

This time I tried it with the patches, and they seem to be doing the trick. I've also told everybody I see on a day-to-day basis I was giving up the cigs, and that helped as well. All the smokers I know won't give me a smoke no matter how much I beg and plead.

As to the withdrawals.... so far so good. I'm finding that I'm not missing my first smoke of the day, but I'm really missing the smoke you have just after a meal. Not having that one is hard. I'm not craving a smoke, but I'm missing them. Smokers will know what I mean. I've had no real bad withdrawal syptoms. I've been incredibly hungry. My right eye has been twitching, which worried me to start off with as that was the eye I went blind in last year, but with each day the twitches get less frequent and don't last as long. Today my eye has only twitched twice. I've also been slightly 'gassy' - they should warn people about that side effect more!

As to the reason I finally decided to actually give up, instead of just toying with the idea? Well, the headaches had started again. The headaches I used to get from high-blood pressure in my head. Also, I went to the doc to get my pill perscription refilled, and my blood pressure was slightly high. So, I figured that high-blood pressure headaches weren't fun the first time 'round, so why do that to myself again? The quickest way to get that under control was to quit smoking. And so I did.

And I also worked out how much money I"ll save, and so I've decided that each week I'm going to use the money I would have spent on smokes to pay a little bit off my credit card.

I really feel confident that I will stay an ex-smoker. Fingers and toes crossed.